golangci-lint

golangci-lint is a fast, parallel Go linters aggregator. It runs dozens of linters concurrently, caches results, and reports issues in a unified output. Use this skill to install, configure, run, and integrate golangci-lint into Go projects.

Installation

Binary (Recommended)

Install a pinned version into $(go env GOPATH)/bin:

curl -sSfL https://golangci-lint.run/install.sh | sh -s -- -b $(go env GOPATH)/bin v2.10.1
golangci-lint --version

Install into a local ./bin/ directory instead:

curl -sSfL https://golangci-lint.run/install.sh | sh -s v2.10.1

macOS

brew install golangci-lint
# or tap for the latest release
brew tap golangci/tap && brew install golangci/tap/golangci-lint

Windows

choco install golangci-lint   # Chocolatey
scoop install main/golangci-lint  # Scoop

Docker

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app -w /app golangci/golangci-lint:v2.10.1 golangci-lint run

Always pin to a specific version in CI. Avoid go install for golangci-lint — binary installation is faster and more reproducible.

Running

Basic Commands

# Lint the entire module (recursive)
golangci-lint run

# Equivalent explicit form
golangci-lint run ./...

# Lint specific directories or files
golangci-lint run ./pkg/... ./internal/...
golangci-lint run main.go

# Format code
golangci-lint fmt

# List enabled/available linters
golangci-lint linters
golangci-lint help linters

Directories are not analyzed recursively by default — append /... to recurse.

Useful Flags

Flag	Purpose
--fix	Auto-fix issues where supported
--fast	Run only fast linters
-E <linter>	Enable a specific linter
-D <linter>	Disable a specific linter
--default=none	Disable all default linters
--timeout 5m	Set analysis timeout
-v	Verbose output (shows which config is loaded)
--new-from-rev HEAD~1	Report only issues in recent changes

Show Only New Issues

Integrate into existing codebases without fixing everything at once:

# Show only issues in uncommitted changes
golangci-lint run --new

# Show only issues introduced since a commit
golangci-lint run --new-from-rev HEAD~1

Configuration File

golangci-lint searches for these files from the working directory upward:

• .golangci.yml / .golangci.yaml
• .golangci.toml
• .golangci.json

All config-file options mirror CLI flags. Linter-specific settings are only available via the config file.

Minimal Working Configuration

version: "2"

linters:
  default: standard
  enable:
    - gocritic
    - gosec
    - misspell
    - revive
    - wrapcheck

run:
  timeout: 5m
  tests: true

issues:
  max-issues-per-linter: 0
  max-same-issues: 0

Recommended Project Configuration

version: "2"

linters:
  default: standard
  enable:
    - bodyclose
    - errorlint
    - gocritic
    - gosec
    - misspell
    - noctx
    - revive
    - staticcheck
    - wrapcheck
  disable:
    - exhaustruct   # too noisy for most projects

run:
  timeout: 5m
  tests: true
  relative-path-mode: gomod

issues:
  max-issues-per-linter: 0
  max-same-issues: 0
  new-from-rev: ""  # report all issues, not just new ones

linters:
  exclusions:
    generated: lax
    presets:
      - comments
      - std-error-handling
    rules:
      - path: _test\.go
        linters:
          - gosec
          - errcheck
          - funlen

Linters

Enabled by Default (default: standard)

Linter	Purpose
errcheck	Detects unchecked errors
govet	Finds suspicious constructs (like go vet)
ineffassign	Detects assignments to variables that are never used
staticcheck	Comprehensive static analysis suite
unused	Finds unused constants, variables, functions, and types

Commonly Enabled Extra Linters

Linter	Purpose
bodyclose	Checks HTTP response body is closed
errorlint	Finds issues with Go 1.13 error wrapping
gocritic	Bugs, performance, and style diagnostics
gosec	Security-focused code inspection
misspell	Finds commonly misspelled English words
noctx	Detects missing context.Context usage
revive	Configurable drop-in replacement for golint
wrapcheck	Ensures errors from external packages are wrapped
funlen	Reports functions exceeding a length threshold
gocyclo	Cyclomatic complexity checker
godot	Checks comments end with a period
prealloc	Suggests slice pre-allocation
unparam	Reports unused function parameters

Run golangci-lint help linters to see all available linters with their status.

Suppressing False Positives

Inline //nolint Directive

Suppress for a single line:

var legacyVar = globalState //nolint:gochecknoglobals // legacy API contract

Suppress multiple linters:

result, _ := riskyCall() //nolint:errcheck,gosec

Suppress for an entire function:

//nolint:gocyclo // This legacy function is intentionally complex
func parseLegacyConfig() error {
    // ...
}

Syntax rules — no spaces allowed between // and nolint, or between nolint: and the linter name:

// nolint:xxx   ← INVALID (space after //)
//nolint: xxx   ← INVALID (space after colon)
//nolint:xxx    ← VALID

Always add a comment after //nolint explaining why.

Exclusion Rules in Config

Exclude by path pattern:

linters:
  exclusions:
    rules:
      - path: _test\.go
        linters:
          - gocyclo
          - errcheck
          - gosec

Exclude by issue text:

linters:
  exclusions:
    rules:
      - linters:
          - staticcheck
        text: "SA9003:"

Exclude generated files:

linters:
  exclusions:
    generated: lax   # also excludes files with "do not edit" comments
    paths:
      - vendor/
      - ".*\\.pb\\.go$"

Exclusion Presets

Four built-in presets group common false-positive suppressions:

linters:
  exclusions:
    presets:
      - comments            # unexported items without godoc
      - std-error-handling  # ignores Close/Flush/Print error checks
      - common-false-positives  # gosec G103, G204, G304
      - legacy              # deprecated rules from older linters

CI Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Lint
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: stable
      - uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
        with:
          version: v2.10.1

Use the official golangci/golangci-lint-action — it uses smart caching and creates GitHub annotations for found issues.

GitLab CI

include:
  - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/code-quality-oss/codequality-os-scanners-integration/golangci@1.0.1

Other CI (Binary)

curl -sSfL https://golangci-lint.run/install.sh | sh -s -- -b /usr/local/bin v2.10.1
golangci-lint run ./...

Always pin to a specific version to prevent unexpected breakage when linters are upgraded upstream.

Output Formats

golangci-lint supports multiple output formats for different consumers:

output:
  formats:
    text:
      path: stdout
      print-linter-name: true
    json:
      path: ./lint-report.json
    checkstyle:
      path: ./checkstyle-report.xml
    junit-xml:
      path: ./junit-report.xml
    sarif:
      path: ./sarif-report.json
  sort-order:
    - linter
    - severity
    - file

Quick Reference

Command	Purpose
golangci-lint run	Lint entire module
golangci-lint run --fix	Lint and auto-fix
golangci-lint fmt	Format code
golangci-lint linters	List enabled linters
golangci-lint run -v	Verbose (shows config path)
golangci-lint run --new	Only new issues in changed files

Config file	Search order
.golangci.yml	First match wins, searches upward
.golangci.yaml	Second
.golangci.toml	Third
.golangci.json	Fourth

Additional Resources

For complete configuration examples, linter-by-linter settings, and advanced patterns:

• references/advanced-configuration.md — Full .golangci.yml with all sections annotated, per-linter settings examples, and CI caching strategies